Monday, November 24, 2014

This past Sunday, I had the rare occasion to get some hours in at the Maryland Live! tables... I never get the chance to play because my wife has so many things scheduled for our family to do on the weekend. However, by the course of the family business we own, I had deliveries to make on the way up to the poker room, and later in the day, had pick ups to make in the reverse order. It didn't make sense for me to drop off & come home - and rinse & repeat - so I stayed out there. Besides, who am I to complain about free time to play some live poker!?!?!?

Anyway, the tables were super soft - filled with guys who believe they know what they're doing, but are just acting like aggromaniacs. I was surprised at some of the play - my general rule on 65+ male poker players is that they're going to be tight / passive. I saw one such guy 3-bet KQo and get it in on the turn on a Q high board against a flopped 2 pair. I saw another guy get it in two different times PF with 44 and AK... not the kind of play I would expect...

Regardless, I think the tables are consistently easier during the weekend as opposed to the weekdays. I didn't hit many hands, but those hands that I did hit, I hit hard:

AJo I raise $12 first in. I get about 4 callers and we see a J high flop with 2 hearts. I lead for $30 and get a terribad caller - he's been so transparent; i.e. calls when behind, bets when he has top pair. I immediately put him on a draw. Turn is a non-heart Q. I bet $65 and he snaps it like he owns the place. River is a non-heart blank and I opt to check here... He has about $80 (effective) behind, and I've seen him try to bluff rivers where it doesn't make sense (he's a bet when he thinks he's ahead, check when he's drawing kinda guy). He's always going to bet his air and his value on the river, but he's never calling his air on the river, so why not try for a check here when I'm going to be good so often? I check and as hoped, he fires his last $80 into the pot, which I snap off. He shows 9h2h for the busted draw.

AJo again, I raise into 3 limpers to $15. I get calls in 3 spots, $60 to the flop. J 2 5 rainbow; BB leads for $30, I call as does a terribad player. Turn is a blank, BB leads for $60. I call, same terribad player calls. River is another blank and it's checked to me. There's a ton of money in the pot already - $320 - and I have ~$200 (effective) behind - bet or not to bet? I think I miss value here but I check and it checks through. BB doesn't show and terribad player has JT. Nicely sized pot but I perhaps missed value on the river with my TPTK. I think too many players are gun shy betting into the river with a single pair hand, but I felt that I'm against 2 other players with a lot of money in the pot already... It's probably 25% bet, 75% check situation with expectation to call whatever terribad player bets on the river (he's been prone to turn hands into bluffs when checked to on the river).

JsJx, I call an EP raise from a tight player - $15 - as do 3 other players. $75 in the pot and the flop is 3s 4s 9. It's checked to me and I lead for $45, only the original raiser calls after contemplating for a LOOONG time. At this point, I feel like I'm way behind... I'm 99% certain he's not on any sort of draw; he has QQ+, TT is very unlikely. Turn is 2s and we check through. I turn a backdoor spade draw, though I'm not sure my Js is good here. The river definitely bails me out though when the Jc shows it's beautiful face. It's checked to me once again (BTW, we're playing about $400 deep to start the hand - he has $800+), and I think about how much value I can get out of my top set now that I know I'm ahead of his QQ+. The check on the turn is what will definitely get him to call a sizable river bet, but I don't want him thinking I checked for deception on my turned spade draw. The bet has to be awkward - so I settle on $90, which is sizable but not over-the-top. $90 into $165 is doable. He thinks for a good long while before finally making the call - he doesn't show but 15 hands later tells me he had KK.

Last hand of note, 7 hands later, 55 in middle position - fairly standard flopped set action. I limp in and see an A 8s 5s board. I lead for $15 and get a caller from a semi-solid player in the BB. Turn is 2 and I lead for $45. Call. River is another 2 & I push out $100 (he has $130 total behind but I felt like a $130 bet was too large to call for a limped pot). He somewhat quickly calls and is shown the bad news.

Nice session. I wonder what it's like? By comparison, I played Saturday at Harrah's AC from about 11:00 to 4:00 am and had about 2 playable (not good . . . "playable") hands the entire time . . . Left down $100 when the table got 5 handed with no sign of new players . . .

My suspicions are that AC is a dead horse... I can't imagine the action is very good up there. On the other hand, when you are card dead like you describe, you should be able to take advantage of the rocks that are left there - raise PF more often and cbet more often. The tighter the players, the less value you get from made hands, but the more value you get from missed hands / bluffs.

Have you been up to Harrah's Baltimore? I've yet to check that place out since the games are so good at Live!

No major mods - just learning how to change brake pads, filters, clear radiators, etc. I've never worked on a car before in my entire life (including never changing my own oil) so it's been an experience for my son & me.

I'm prolly putting in around 5k miles per year. This is really a weekend driver - the car only has 45k miles! I'll take it back & forth to work once a week just get some drive time, but the problem is that it's a 2 seater, not really amenable to family of 5.

Thanks - yeah, I'm done with Denver as far as the temporary relocation goes. I'm still back there on occasion for meetings, etc. The work is truly unending... I've never worked harder in my life than working in this position.